Quantum Mistakes

leaper...Sam could read when he was two. It was established in Honeymoon Express in the first season. He would get nervous on the trains when he was 2 so his mom would give him a book to read to calm him down. The question for me is how could he grasp the concept at such ayoung age, but Sam is like the bionic man, so you never know. As for writing and spelling, I think its fully plausible he had help from Tom. Sam told Tom what he wanted to know and Tom did the actual writing.

MIA...I think its more like Big Sam (lol, for lack of a better term) helped clarify Mo's own theory of time travel, using the string theory, who then told it to Little Sam in 1957. Its a bizarre, cyclical thing that pretty much caused Sam to inspire himself.

Samantha Beckett
 
Samantha Beckett said:
MIA...I think its more like Big Sam (lol, for lack of a better term) helped clarify Mo's own theory of time travel, using the string theory, who then told it to Little Sam in 1957. Its a bizarre, cyclical thing that pretty much caused Sam to inspire himself.

Samantha Beckett
So basically, PARADOX! lol
 
In 'Good Morning Peoria', when Sam is creating a makeshift aerial on the roof, Al starts glowing blue, as Sam does when he leaps. He says "Look Sam, I'm leaping." However, in Mirror Image, Sam sees Stawpah leap. When Al finally appears, Sam excitedly tells him about it and asks Al if he goes all blue and charged with electricity when he leaps. Al responds by saying that he wouldn't know, as when Sam leaps he simply finds himself back in the imaging chamber. If Al has never seen the leap effect why would he have assumed he was leaping in an earlier show?

La-di-da
 
In 'Good Morning Peoria', when Sam is creating a makeshift aerial on the roof, Al starts glowing blue, as Sam does when he leaps. He says "Look Sam, I'm leaping." However, in Mirror Image, Sam sees Stawpah leap. When Al finally appears, Sam excitedly tells him about it and asks Al if he goes all blue and charged with electricity when he leaps. Al responds by saying that he wouldn't know, as when Sam leaps he simply finds himself back in the imaging chamber. If Al has never seen the leap effect why would he have assumed he was leaping in an earlier show

YEAH i noticed that!
 
M.I.A said:
In 'Good Morning Peoria', when Sam is creating a makeshift aerial on the roof, Al starts glowing blue, as Sam does when he leaps. He says "Look Sam, I'm leaping." However, in Mirror Image, Sam sees Stawpah leap. When Al finally appears, Sam excitedly tells him about it and asks Al if he goes all blue and charged with electricity when he leaps. Al responds by saying that he wouldn't know, as when Sam leaps he simply finds himself back in the imaging chamber. If Al has never seen the leap effect why would he have assumed he was leaping in an earlier show?

La-di-da

I always interpreted that as in Al assuming the glow was what leaping looked like. You know, something like, "Hey, I'm glowing! I must be leaping!" So I never saw this one as a mistake.
 
QL Nut said:
I always interpreted that as in Al assuming the glow was what leaping looked like. You know, something like, "Hey, I'm glowing! I must be leaping!" So I never saw this one as a mistake.
That sounds a bit far-fetched if you ask me, a little too much of a coincidence.
 
What I would consider a mistake, however, is the fact that people who see Sam and Al for who they are apparently can't see the blue leap effect. Al should at least see it as Sam begins to leap, at least after the point in the series where he could see Sam as himself. But then again we never really see people's reactions after Sam leaps out, so who knows?
 
In episode "Return of the evil leaper", at the end of the episode, Zoey is surprised and shocked when she finds out that Sam knows Dawn is Alia ("Beckett knows!") but she should have known for long since she spyed them at the library when Sam finds out about Alia. But no, she acts after that like she doesn't know at all and talks with Alia like nothing happens...
And at the end of "Revenge", when Alia leaps out, nobody knows where she is. However Al says that she's free. But isn't the body of Alia in PQL's waiting chamber with Sam's since there are 2 people there? When Alia leaps out, don't she retrieve her body in PQL's waiting chamber, making her free indeed?
 
Cruel Lothos said:
And at the end of "Revenge", when Alia leaps out, nobody knows where she is. However Al says that she's free. But isn't the body of Alia in PQL's waiting chamber with Sam's since there are 2 people there? When Alia leaps out, don't she retrieve her body in PQL's waiting chamber, making her free indeed?

Alia was not under Project Quantum Leap's control and therefore didn't arrive back there. Although her leaping aura had changed from red to blue, it didn't necessarily mean that she'd permanently stay with PQL. The only time PQL had any kind of control over Alia was when Sam's leap overrode her's. I think she ultimately became a rogue leaper, similar to that of the "ghost" leapers in "Mirror Image" (who also have the same blue leaping effect) with no particular project to belong to.

What happened in this case was that at the end of "Return," the quantum field that surrounds Sam when he leaps also enveloped Alia, signifying that she was now free of Lothos' technology. Now that this caused two people to be in the Waiting Room, once Alia leaped out Angel leaped back in. Rather than either another leapee from another time appearing in the Waiting Room, or Alia appearing herself, Angel simply vanished altogether. Having two leapees was a unique set of circumstances much like the simul-leaping in "The Leap Back," so if anything, the fluke corrected itself once Alia leaped out. Because PQL no longer had a second leapee, they knew that Alia's next leap was somewhere beyond PQL's knowledge and that she was free.
 
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Noticed this small mistake while watching "Nowhere To Run": Billy's thumb completely twitches as he's about to drive his chair into the pool. As a quadriplegic, that's supposed to be impossibe.
 
QL Nut said:
Noticed this small mistake while watching "Nowhere To Run": Billy's thumb completely twitches as he's about to drive his chair into the pool. As a quadriplegic, that's supposed to be impossibe.

Not necessarily. Quadriplegics cannot control muscle function, but the body has all kinds of autonomic reactions. Even people in persistent vegetative states will twitch. Also, Billy has enough control to move the lever, as opposed to someone like Christopher Reeve, who controlled his chair by blowing on a sensor.

In Trilogy part one, Sam is looking at news clips of Violet's disappearance. The headlines fit, but read the articles (LOL!). They have absolutely nothing to do with the story! And in Trilogy part two, when Sam gets pulled out of bed by the lynch mob, you can totally see SB's er, jockstrap. (Don't ask me why my eyes were focused down there.) And in Trilogy part three, of course, Mrs. Stanton wants to be Jane Fonda in Butterfield 8. Except that Elizabeth Taylor (whom Mrs. Stanton does resemble a bit) is in Butterfield 8.
 
bluedana said:
Not necessarily. Quadriplegics cannot control muscle function, but the body has all kinds of autonomic reactions. Even people in persistent vegetative states will twitch. Also, Billy has enough control to move the lever, as opposed to someone like Christopher Reeve, who controlled his chair by blowing on a sensor.

Interesting... It definitely wasn't his body weight pushing the chair as he was sitting still, but you're right that it can be explained as a muscle spasm. I took it as a bit of an acting slip...
 
bluedana said:
And in Trilogy part two, when Sam gets pulled out of bed by the lynch mob, you can totally see SB's er, jockstrap. (Don't ask me why my eyes were focused down there.)

*groans* I hope you realize now that I'm going to be looking for that next time I watch Trilogy part two. And here I was being so good, focusing on his face and nothing else...
 
I took it as a bit of an acting slip...
Oh, it probably was. I just take a special joy in fan-wanking.

*groans* I hope you realize now that I'm going to be looking for that next time I watch Trilogy part two. And here I was being so good, focusing on his face and nothing else...
Snort. You're a better woman than I am, LadyKayoss.
 
QL Nut said:
Noticed this small mistake while watching "Nowhere To Run": Billy's thumb completely twitches as he's about to drive his chair into the pool. As a quadriplegic, that's supposed to be impossibe.

Not quite. My ex-husband is technically a quad and he has most use of his arms. Quadriplegic simply means that all for limbs are affected, not necessarily rendered useless. In fact, the higher the injury in the cervical region, the less feeling and/or mobility in the arms and hands - starting from the pinkies inward. So it could be that Billy couldn't feel or move his pinkies, but could use the rest of his hand, fingers, and last would be his thumb to go.

My guess is that Billy was about a C5-C4ish, which would explain why he's able to switch the weight of his shoulders enough to use the joystick on the electric chair.
 
bluedana said:
Snort. You're a better woman than I am, LadyKayoss.

LOL. It's not so much a matter of being a better woman; I just find that if I pay too much attention to his state of undress, I tend to get too distracted and miss what's going on. :D
 
MIA...I think its more like Big Sam (lol, for lack of a better term) helped clarify Mo's own theory of time travel, using the string theory, who then told it to Little Sam in 1957. Its a bizarre, cyclical thing that pretty much caused Sam to inspire himself.

Actually, in the original history, Mo Stein didn't read the letter from Little Sam. He had tried to jump on the train that morning and died. So, if the show went on, then it was Future Boy who would have read the letter. Also, there's no evidence as to who choose the letters to be read on the air. If Mo was choosing them, then it's possible the next letter wouldn't have been Sam's. Even if the next letter was Sam's, then Future Boy may not have answered it the same way the Mo Stein would have, and therefore, wouldn't have had that answer in depth.

As I recall, the letter itself asked about learning more about time travel so it's possible that Mo in a previous episode of his show had said something that could have gotten Sam thinking about time travel back then (since it's obvious he watched the show.)

In anycase, even in the changed history, Sam would have had his ideas better defined based on Mo's answer. I still think he pretty much came up with the general thoughts himself.

At least this is the way I saw it.
 
In "Trilogy Part I" during the scene where Leta Aider chases Abigail around the house, you can catch a quick glimpse of Dean's reflection on the wall unit as he runs past.

In "The Leap Home" just before Sam looks at his younger self in the mirror, there is a wide shot where you can see Scott's reflection in the mirror. This scene is entirely cut out in syndication and only on the DVD.
 
In "8½ Months," the leap date is November 15, 1955. However, Sam says that he figured out the date by reading the hospital calendar, which said the date was November 14, 1955.
 
LadyKayoss said:
*groans* I hope you realize now that I'm going to be looking for that next time I watch Trilogy part two. And here I was being so good, focusing on his face and nothing else...
Now I'm going to have to pull out season 5 again.

Not that I mind *grin*
 
In "Star Light, Star Bright," Sam and Timmy are having a conversation about famous rock musicians. Sam brings up Jimi Hendrix and says that Timmy will get a chance to see him play within the year. Timmy asks where he's playing and Sam says Woodstock. The leap date is May 21, 1966, but the Woodstock festival didn't occur until 1969.
 
Something I just thought of this morning

When I awoke this morning the first thing that popped into my head is the whole intro to QL, and I noticed this. Just wanted to know if anyone else thought about this. In the intro that everyone is familiar with the female voice said "Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished...
We all know how the rest goes but the intro said he vanished when he stepped in but he doesn't vanish physically. Had anyone else picked up on this?
 
colter said:
In the intro that everyone is familiar with the female voice said "Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished...
We all know how the rest goes but the intro said he vanished when he stepped in but he doesn't vanish physically. Had anyone else picked up on this?
I took that to mean he departed from his own time, so he had effectively "vanished."

I don't think this qualifies as a real mistake, but something about the "Goodbye Norma Jean" episode has bugged me for years. Sam reminisces about spending Saturday afternoons at the movies watching Marilyn Monroe's movies. If he was born in August of 1953, he would have just turned 9 when she died. That seems awfully young to have many memories of Marilyn Monroe films. They were pretty racy for their time; did kids in the 1950's and early 1960's regularly go to see them, especially in rural Indiana?
 
I noticed a blooper in Nuclear Family as I just finished watching it. In the scene where Sam buries the bullets from Mac's shotgun you can see Sam the dog digging up dirt in the distance on the other side of the yard so you can tell right away that he's going to find them as he did in the very next scene. however when they show that scene in the credits the dog is not there.
 
One of my favorite mistakes is that the opening establishing shot for the episode Blind Faith, set in NYC in '64, shows the twin towers - not completed until the 70's.

In Temptation Eyes, when Sam is going after the guy that Tamlyn identified as the killer, he runs down a street past a bunch of store windows and you can see that it's him, not the Leapee.

I love this game, too.
 
Aging Boomer said:
I don't think this qualifies as a real mistake, but something about the "Goodbye Norma Jean" episode has bugged me for years. Sam reminisces about spending Saturday afternoons at the movies watching Marilyn Monroe's movies. If he was born in August of 1953, he would have just turned 9 when she died. That seems awfully young to have many memories of Marilyn Monroe films. They were pretty racy for their time; did kids in the 1950's and early 1960's regularly go to see them, especially in rural Indiana?

He says that he watched them on TV when he was in college - he even states that he was too young to have been part of that era.
 
cookiemom6067 said:
He says that he watched them on TV when he was in college - he even states that he was too young to have been part of that era.
Oh, OK--I haven't re-watched that episode (it's not one I especially liked). I thought I remembered him saying he spent Saturday afternoons at the movies basking in the glow of her eyes.
 
Aging Boomer said:
Oh, OK--I haven't re-watched that episode (it's not one I especially liked). I thought I remembered him saying he spent Saturday afternoons at the movies basking in the glow of her eyes.

I could have sworn he said that too, and I could swear I remember him using the phrase "baby blues". I have only seen that ep twice myself though, Its on my least fav list as well.